


Working Title™

by Caticorn2003



Category: Weird Kids at the End of the Table
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 20:24:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19070008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caticorn2003/pseuds/Caticorn2003
Summary: The room rotates ninety degrees, and the Weird Kids have to figure out a way to get out.





	Working Title™

It was a normal Tuesday, and everyone was minding their own business in the basement.

Riley, Joe and Connor guffawed over a video on Joe’s Chromebook. Laura, Nicole, Sophia and Noa huddled together by the far wall, talking too quietly for the rest of them to hear. Daniel was sitting with his feet farther apart than his wingspan while Naomi glared at him, and Cornelia was eating a sandwich.

Noa looked up sharply. “Does anyone hear that?”

Everyone stopped what they were doing and listened – except for Joe and Riley, who snorted with laughter as somebody swore in an Italian accent.

“SHUT UP!” Naomi snapped.

The laughter came to an abrupt end.

_ “What?” _ Riley asked. “I’ll be as loud as I want to be!”

“Seriously.  _ Shut up. _ I hear something.” Cornelia had picked up on the noise, too. It was a sort of grinding, clicking noise, like somebody was running a giant machine behind the rows of lockers. There was a rumbling, too, soft at first but growing steadily louder, like an approaching freight train.

“What’s going on?” Laura cried, covering her ears as the noises got louder and louder . . . and louder. Just when it seemed like there was no more volume left for them to go (everyone had their hands over their ears now) they swelled to a peak – and then abruptly stopped.

“Glad that’s over –” Nicole started.

There was a click, and everybody fell sideways.

The people on the left side of the room smacked their heads against the wall. Everyone sitting by the right side fell straight down, except down was left.

Cornelia let out a soft “oof” as Noa fell directly on top of her, followed immediately by Nicole. Sophia and Laura both slammed into the lockers. Connor slid the last couple of inches to hit the wall with his right shoulder; Riley and Joe followed.

Daniel fell on top of Naomi, who flailed and squirmed.  _ “Get off of me!” _

“Sorry.” Daniel picked himself up, and the strangest thing happened; he was standing parallel to the floor, his head inches from the tiles. Only the floor wasn’t the floor anymore, it was the wall, and the lockers formed the new floor.

“Everyone okay?” Cornelia asked, easing out from underneath Noa and extending a hand to her to help her up.

Sophia groaned and rubbed her head. “I’m okay. I think.”

“I’m fine.” Riley spread his arms. “I’ve got some nice cushioning here, eh Connor?”

“Get off,” Connor muttered.

Naomi took a few experimental steps up the lockers. “Hey, we can walk!”

“What? Let me try.” Nicole stood up and stepped from locker to locker to join Naomi. “This is so cool!”

Noa picked her way over to Connor, Riley and Joe, who were still squished into the small space between the end of the lockers and the wall. “What happened to you guys?”

“I don’t know.” Connor’s muffled voice came from underneath Riley and Joe.

“Here, I can move.” Joe scrambled out and stood in the tiny space, waiting for Riley and Connor. Both of them eased to their feet and clambered out of the space to join the rest of the Weird Kids on the lockers.

“So.” Naomi sat down, cross-legged, sideways. “Does somebody want to explain to me  _ what _ just happened?”

“I dunno,” Daniel shrugged. “It seems like gravity just rotated sideways or something.”

“Gravity can’t just  _ rotate sideways, _ ” Joe said, exasperated. “That’s not how life works. Maybe the room turned on its side –”

Naomi held up her hand. “You can be a nerd later. The question is, what do we do now?”

“We try to find our way out, I guess,” Laura said. Sophia leaned into her shoulder, and she turned to her. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know,” Sophia murmured as Laura put her arm around her. “My head hurts.”

“Well, I don’t see why that would be too hard,” Connor said. “We just . . . sorta . . . climb down to the hallway?”

Cornelia peered over the edge of the lockers. It was a five-foot drop to the door, and then once they got through the door there was the whole hallway, straight down. “You really wanna fall ten meters?”

“Shoot, the rest of the school’s rotated too?” Noa joined Cornelia by the edge. Cornelia pointed to the door, and Noa shrank away. “Yeesh. That’s a long drop.”

“Yeeeeah.”

“So, hallway? Not an option. What about the stairs?” Connor waved his hand vaguely in the direction of the other door.

“Um . . .” Nicole pointed at the wall blocking their way.

“I could probably get up there,” Daniel said, joining Cornelia and Noa by the edge of the lockers. “It doesn’t look too high.”

Cornelia shrugged. “Go for it.”

“Okay . . .” Daniel crouched down (the others moved out of the way) and jumped. He managed to cling to the edge of the wall, but his fingers slipped and he fell down to the door. “Shoot!”

“Good job,” Noa said.

“Do you need help?” Joe glanced over to Daniel, whose head and shoulders protruded above the lockers.

“I got it.” Daniel put his arms on top of the lockers and heaved himself up, then sat up, panting. “Okay, I’m good.”

“You could have just gone up over there.” Laura pointed at what had been the top of the left wall, where the lockers stopped and there was a dip that was now only a few feet above the new ‘ground.’ “It would have been way easier to get up.”

“Yeah. Why didn’t you go up that way?” Noa gave him a  _ you’re so stupid _ look. Daniel waved her off.

“Whatever. Anyway, we need to get up there somehow.” He pointed at the wall. “Maybe if I had a boost . . .”

“I don’t think anyone’s strong enough to lift you.” Naomi folded her arms smugly.

“Okay, fine. Then I’ll give Connor a boost or something –”

“Nope. Not happening. I’m sorry.”

“All right, how about Joe?”

“I have noodle arms! I couldn’t lift myself up there even with help!” Joe spread his arms, which were admittedly noodle-like.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” Naomi shouldered her way through the rest of them. “Do it with me. Careful where you touch me.”

Connor snorted, and Cornelia kicked him in the shin.

“Ow!”

Daniel went on one knee, Naomi stepped on it using Noa for balance, then she stretched out her other hand to touch the edge of the wall. “I don’t think I can quite get up –”

“Here.” Cornelia laced her fingers together and held them up to make a foothold. Naomi stepped in it, and the added height was enough so she could scramble up to the higher floor. “Made it!”

“Nice,” Joe said. “Who’s next?”

Everyone looked at each other.

“I can go, I guess?” Nicole volunteered after a long silence.

She got up the same way, with an extra hand from Naomi. Now there were two on the higher floor, and eight still on the lockers. Everyone cheered.

“Okay, so we just need to do this eight more times.” Riley put his hands on his hips.

Sophia said something to Laura, so quietly nobody else could hear.

“What did you say?” Noa turned to her.

“She’s staying here,” Laura said. “She doesn’t want to risk it.”

“I think I hurt my head,” Sophia whispered.

“Okay, so does somebody want to stay with her or –”

“I’m staying with her.” Laura put an arm around Sophia again.

“ – I guess that’s decided, then. Okay, so we only need to do it  _ six  _ more times,” Riley corrected himself. “Joe! You wanna go next?”

Joe shrugged. “Sure, I guess.”

“Wait. Wait wait wait.” Cornelia held up her hands. “We need to think this through. We don’t want all the light people to go first and then all the heavy people can’t get up. What makes the most sense? We have me, Noa, Riley, Joe, Connor and Daniel still.”

“Sophia and I can maybe help with the last few people,” Laura put in, putting up her hand halfway.

In the end, Daniel served as a stepping-stone for Cornelia, Riley and Noa, then Connor reluctantly gave Daniel a boost and everyone who was already on top of the higher floor helped him scramble up. Now only Joe and Connor remained.

“Okay. Joe, you ready?” Connor looked at him.

“Ready!”

Laura stood up from where she had been sitting beside Sophia and laced her hands together to form a step; Joe did the same, and Connor carefully stepped up.

“Are you balanced?” Joe asked.

“My knee itches –” Laura complained.

“I’m balanced.” Connor teetered slightly back and forth, but stayed where he was on top of Joe’s and Laura’s palms. “Are you guys ready –”

Of course it had to be  _ then _ that the door opened.

“What on  _ earth _ are you guys doing?” Jullia was walking normally, on what had been the floor – the gravity change seemed not to affect her at all. She seemed surprisingly calm about the whole turned-sideways thing, but she was rolling her eyes at Connor’s balancing act.

Laura bent and unbent her knee. “Can you  _ hurry up _ ? I think there’s a mosquito or something –”

Jullia stayed, leaning against the door and holding it open.

“Oh.” Connor looked down at the open doorway, swaying slightly more. “That  _ is _ far.”

“What did I tell you?” Cornelia called from the higher floor.

“I can’t stand this anymore!” Laura let go with one hand and bent to scratch her knee. Joe’s elbows buckled at the extra weight, Connor started to fall, Jullia screamed, the door stayed open, and then Connor, Joe and Jullia were all falling down the hallway as everyone covered their eyes. They landed with a sickening  _ smack. _

“JOE!” Riley screamed. “CONNOR!”

Nothing was heard but the echo of his shout.

“Oh, no, no, no, no, this is bad . . .” Cornelia peered over the edge, dreading what she might find. Nothing could be seen but shapeless figures (the door had closed on its own and they had to look through the small window) and there was no movement.

Laura crumpled, hiding her head between her knees. “I’m so, so sorry. This is all my fault, all my fault, all my fault . . .”

“Laura, it’s okay –” Nicole started.

“It’s  _ not _ okay!”

“Hey!” There was a very, very faint shout, and everyone peered over the edge to see a small hand waving feebly from down the hallway.

“They’re alive! Or one of them is, at least.” Cornelia waved back, not that it did much good.

“We need to keep going,” Naomi said decisively. “We can’t help them now. What’s next?”

Cornelia pulled back from the edge and crawled over to the door. “Up the stairs, I guess. Er,  _ down _ the stairs.”

“Wait, what?” Noa was peering through the glass. “Oh. That’s  _ weird. _ ”

“What? Let me see.” Daniel joined them. “What the heck?”

“Okay, now I need to see this.” Naomi crawled over. “That’s not that weird. We just need to figure out how to get down there.”

“Can’t we just open the door and, bam, we’re there?” Riley smacked his hands together for emphasis.

“No, come look.” Cornelia beckoned to him. “There’s a drop before the first step, and look how narrow they are.”

“Oh, yeah.”

A pause.

“Well, here goes nothing!” Riley nudged everyone out of the way, knelt on the door, which opened, and tumbled down to the stairs as the door closed behind him. He held onto the railing, balanced on the narrow step, and brushed himself off. “See?”

Naomi gawked at him. “That actually  _ worked?” _

Riley grimaced and rubbed his knee. “Well, my knee hurts now.”

Cornelia and Noa devised a better system: one person pushed open the door, Riley held it open, and they eased carefully down to the stairs. Before they knew it, everyone was through except Daniel, who was balanced on the edge of the doorframe with his elbows bent and all his weight on his hands.

“Are you coming or do you just want to stay in that position forever?” Naomi called up to him.

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” Daniel dropped through the doorway but knocked into Riley on the way down; the stairs were too narrow and steep for them to keep their balance, and both of them tumbled down the short flight of stairs.

“Are you okay?” Nicole called, already making her way down.

“ _ Really, _ Daniel?” Riley shouted, making everyone jump.

“Sorry. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. You just  _ had _ to bump into me like that, didn’t you?”

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to!”

“Calm down!” Naomi shouted. “Everyone’s okay, let’s just keep going.” She, Cornelia, Noa and Nicole picked their way down the stairs, clinging tightly to the handrail (at least  _ that _ still worked) but the stairwell had had a curved wall when gravity was still normal, and they couldn’t stand normally on the floor.

Naomi huffed impatiently. “Okay, the next flight of stairs, then?”

“Um . . .” Noa pointed. The next flight of stairs ran above their heads to the left; convenient if you had sticky feet, but as it was it was useless.

“Yeah.” Cornelia let out a breath. “That’s not going to work, is it?”

“Ooh!” Nicole scampered over to the railing, which still ran parallel to the stairs, but far enough down to reach. “I have an idea. Hold on.” She took hold of the underside of the railing, swung her knees up to grip it, and shimmied up.

“Nice!” Noa cheered.

Riley studied them critically. “Yeah, but where are you going to go from there?”

“I . . . haven’t thought about that.” Nicole clung to the railing with her knees and scanned her surroundings; the best option seemed to be the board that advertised that day’s lunch, which was within her reach but fragile enough that it might not hold her weight.

The railing creaked ominously.

“Hurry!” Noa called.

Nicole took a deep breath and made a leap for the board, then scrambled over it and used it as a foothold to reach the door leading to the cafeteria. She straddled the doorframe and waved.

“Oi!” A twelfth-grader shoved past Nicole, who swayed and barely kept her balance. “Move, you’re blocking the door!”

“Sorry!” Nicole shifted backwards so she was sitting near the top of the door and students who wanted to buy lunch could still get through (everyone except the Weird Kids seemed remarkably unaffected by the gravity shift – kids were waiting patiently in  the lunch line, seemingly not even noticing Nicole and the others standing sideways down the stairs).

“So what are you going to do?” Daniel called.

“Um . . . I don’t know.” Nicole bit her lip.

“Hey! I have an idea.” Cornelia leaned against the wall and called up to Nicole. “The other kids haven’t reacted to the gravity shift – what if you walked along the lunch line to get to the lounge?” This was a viable option; it was poutine day, and the line stretched nearly out the doors of the school.

“I like that.” Naomi’s voice came from above them all; nobody had realized that she had climbed the railing on the other side of the stairs in the meantime and was now nearly level with Nicole. “Go ahead, Nicole.”

“Okay.” Nicole eased herself up so she was standing on the inside of the doorframe, then took a cautious step onto the waist of the nearest student. He seemed not to react and kept chatting to his friend, but as Nicole stepped onto the next student, a scrawny eighth-grader, her luck ended – the eighth-grader yelped and both of them went tumbling down the floor.

“I’m okay!” Nicole called before anyone could ask.

“What happened?” Riley asked, already swinging a leg over the railing and starting to climb. Naomi, meanwhile, had moved to the third flight of stairs, which was the same as the first flight – steep and narrow, but still in a normal position for stairs. One by one, Riley, Cornelia and Noa joined her, peering around to find Nicole, who was crouched five metres beneath them, on the ledge the wall made before the open cafeteria. Half a meter to the right and she would have fallen three times the distance.

The eighth-grader, meanwhile, had dusted herself off and had limped into the cafeteria to sit with her friends, grumbling.

“Wait, where’s Daniel?” Naomi craned her head, looking around for him.

“I’m coming,” Daniel called. “Just let me – argh! I’m not sure the railing can hold my weight.” He was trying to climb up the one Nicole had taken, but the plastic was creaking and the screws were already halfway out of the wall.

“Daniel, please don’t hang on the railing like that, it damages the screws.” Mr. Rempel was walking up the stairs, sideways from the Weird Kids’ perspective and normal from everyone else’s.

“Well, can you help me get to the assembly area then?” One of the screws popped out entirely. The railing started to curve.

“Just take the stairs, that’s not too difficult, is it?” Rempel stopped.

“You have no idea,” Daniel panted, still clinging to the railing even though two more screws were now at their breaking point.

Rempel rolled his eyes and kept walking, and Daniel glanced around, then took a flying leap and landed on the teacher’s back, as nimble as a monkey. The two of them fell off the stairs, and landed on the curved wall at the bottom. Well, Daniel landed on the wall; Rempel slid down to the floor but leapt up immediately, steaming.

“Office.  _ Now.” _

“But, Rempel, I can’t – the railing, it’s –”

“I don’t care  _ how _ you get there so long as you do.” Their science teacher was normally the chillest teacher in the school; it was rare to even see him annoyed. This level of anger had never been witnessed by any of them. “Walk up the stairs, take the railing, teleport if you must. Go.”

Daniel hoisted himself up the other railing while Rempel rolled his eyes, then balanced on the edge of the wall to the right of where Naomi, Noa, Riley and Cornelia were clustered. “Um . . .”

“Are you going or not?”

Daniel looked around desperately. There was nothing he could do; he either had to fall fifteen metres into the assembly area, or stay where he was and await the consequences.

“Do I have to go and get Mr. Modolo to talk to you here?” Rempel folded his arms. Daniel did nothing, but stayed perched on the wall.

Shaking his head, the teacher headed across the foyer for the main office, and Daniel breathed a sigh of relief. “Glad that’s over with.”

“Rempel is the least of our problems. What are we going to do from here?” Noa gestured around them. “The ceiling’s way up there, the floor’s way down there. We don’t have anywhere to go.”

Naomi peered up at the ceiling, which consisted of double double doors leading to the gym, and a water fountain. And Student Council lockers. “Maybe we could get into the gym somehow?”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Noa said. “Wait, Cornelia . . . can I stand on your shoulders?”

Cornelia shrugged. “You’re welcome to try.”

Daniel provided moral support while Naomi and Riley helped Noa, first into a sitting position on Cornelia’s shoulders, then a kneeling one, then finally standing, knees shaking as she reached for the handle to the gym doors. “ _ Got it!” _

“Awesome! Pull down on it!” Cornelia called from below.

Noa pulled the whatever-it’s-called, the clicky thing that opens doors like the gym ones, and immediately fell sideways, just barely managing to cling to the handle with both hands as it swung open.

“Okay, now Naomi, you stand on my shoulders, and Daniel, get off your wall and help support . . .”

But Naomi wasn’t quite tall enough; her fingertips could just brush the door frame, but it wasn’t enough to pull herself up. “I  _ hate _ being short!”

“Guys, I’m slipping . . .” Noa called from the door. “I don’t know how much longer I can hold on here.”

“Oh, do you need help?” Simon had just left the gym, basketball in hand, through one of the other doors, and noticed the struggle.

“Some help would be great,” Noa gasped, clinging desperately to the handle. Simon held the door, and Noa managed to kick one foot up to the other side of the frame, but that was it; she couldn’t go anywhere from there. Cornelia, standing on Riley’s shoulders, got high enough to grip the door frame of the gym doors and pull herself up; she rolled onto the wall of the gym, and immediately scrambled up to help Noa, whose grip on the door was slipping by the second.

“Okay. Hold on –”

“I’m having a little trouble with that –”

“I know, just let me get your knees –”

Noa screamed as the last of her finger strength gave out and her grip slipped, but Cornelia already had her under the knees, and though Noa was nearly decapitated by the closing door and whacked her chin on the frame, somehow they got themselves up and lying, panting, on the gym wall.

“That was close,” Noa choked. “That was close.”

“You good?” Simon opened the door to check on them, and, when Cornelia nodded, shrugged and walked away, bouncing his basketball.

“Everyone okay?” a faint voice called from below. Naomi’s. Cornelia cracked open the door and peered through.

“We’re okay! Can you guys get up?”

Naomi’s answer was interrupted by the sound of rumbling. The same rumbling sound that they had heard way down in the basement at the beginning of lunch. And the clicking and the grinding. This could only mean one thing.

Noa stared in horror at what-had-been-the-ceiling of the gym, which was easily six metres to their left – and would be the new floor if the pattern continued. “Cornelia . . . if it rotates another ninety degrees, we’re screwed.”

“Don’t talk . . .  _ run!” _ Cornelia leapt to her feet and ran for the bleachers, then realized they were too high to get over and screeched to a stop.  _ “Crap. _ What are we going to do now?”

“You idiot.” Noa took her by the wrist and dragged her up the wall so they could run above the tops of the bleachers without having to climb over them. The rumbling was intensifying by the second, and the walls were starting to shake.

Noa reached the door to Design & Tech and pulled it down, holding it while Cornelia climbed through and held the door for Noa. They ran along the wall to the second set of double doors, which led to a small room with doors leading outside. Noa held the door open, Cornelia started to climb through – and then stopped.

“Why are you stopping?” Noa raised her voice to make herself heard over the rumbling.

“It’s a two-metre drop to the doors. They’re going to open as soon as we land on them. And then there’s the path into the courtyard. It’s like a whole other hallway. Noa, what’s going to happen once we’re outside?”

Noa gasped, the sound lost in the rumbling and clicking and grinding. “I never thought about that. What are we going to do?”

The rumbling swelled to a peak as both girls clapped their hands over their ears – and then stopped. There was only one thing that could happen next.

_ “Jump!” _ Cornelia seized Noa by the wrist and leapt for the outside doors, hitting the bar and flinging them open just as they heard a  _ click _ and saw the room turn upside down. Both of them screwed their eyes shut preparing for whatever was going to happen next – but they had hit solid ground much quicker than made sense and neither of them seemed hurt.

Cornelia was first to open her eyes. They were crouched on the pavement right outside of the Design & Tech doors. The world was right side up again, and when Noa peered inside Design & Tech that was right side up, too.

Cornelia and Noa looked at each other, and then they were both laughing and crying and hugging each other.

“You’re safe. You’re okay.  _ We’re _ okay,” Cornelia whispered, hugging Noa tighter. “We did it.”

Noa pulled back and grinned. “Should we go check on the others?”

Cornelia pushed open the door. “Let’s do that.”


End file.
